On the morning of October 30, China’s XCMG held the delivery ceremony for a large mining equipment fleet arriving into Australia. The ceremony was attended by more than 500 participants, including the executives and employees of XCMG and the customer Jiujiang Mining Australia (JMA). JMA provides mining and exploration services to support Cu-River’s mining operations at the Cairn Hill magnetite mine in South Australia. Those attending included JMA Mine Director Mark Gebhardt and XCMG Chairman & Party Secretary Wang Min. The new fleet will support expansion at Cairn Hill and includes 60 mining units: 300 t hydraulic excavators, 130 t hydraulic excavators and 130 t electric drive dump trucks (model XDE120). These products are worth more than 250 million RMB; and this is the one of the largest deliveries of mining equipment ever made to the export market.

Cu-River also recently executed a funding agreement with JMA to assist in securing the required A$800-million financing facility for a mine expansion, in exchange for an offtake agreement over all of the iron ore generated from the expanded operation. Cu-River is upping production at Cairn Hill to 3 Mt/y then up to 15 Mt/y by 2021. Cu-River Mining Australia was founded in 2014 and its founder and sole shareholder is Adelaide-based businessman Yong Gang Shan, who has more than 20 years of mineral processing experience in SE Asia. The company purchased the Cairn Hill Project and associated tenements in 2014. After an extensive A$20 million upgrading of the Cairn Hill project, Cu-River commenced iron ore exports in June 2016 and produced and exported one million tonnes of ore in a little over its first 12 months of operations.

XCMG stated: “Facing the high-end market in the world, XCMG focuses on product reliability and safety. It has established the product quality, design, manufacturing and application standards and regulations. To meet the high requirements of Australia mines, XCMG has made more than 30 technical upgrading items and 15 designs customised to the Australia market. By adopting the welding & manufacturing standards in Australia, XCMG products fully meet the Australian mine markets so as to create sustainable values for users.”

It adds on strategy and development: “Nowadays, the mining equipment has become the strategic industry of XCMG, whose products, technologies, quality and market share have made breakthroughs. XCMG has established the high-end product lines that include 70-700 t mining hydraulic excavators, 90-360 t mining dumpers, 8-12 t loaders, 300-550 hp leveler, 350-560 hp wheeled bulldozers, thus becoming China’s first company able to develop and manufacture large open-pit mining equipment. As one of the few companies in the world with such ability, XCMG has changed the world’s competition layout.”